Otero County leases building for animal shelter

Otero County plans to use this building south of Alamogordo as an animal shelter. (John Bear/Daily News)

The Otero County Commission agreed to enter a new lease Thursday for a new county-operated animal shelter.

The county agreed to pay $25,000 a year, with final payment scheduled for Sept. 1, 2018, for property located at 601 Wright Ave. The initial cost dropped from $250,000 to $150,00, according to the commission.

The county will pay property taxes, maintenance and insurance for the shelter. Tommie Herrell, Otero County commissioner, said taxes last year were about $3,000.

Herrell said the property is about one acre with room for 44 kennels and possible room for 20 more animals outside.

Susan Flores, commission chairman, said the county wanted their own shelter to cut cost.

"Right now, we are paying approximately $120,000 to $125,000 a year to have the animal shelter at Button Brand," she said. "We have about 100 animals a month that come into the shelter area, which comes to about $100 an animal to house. When I did my audits on their records this past year and started looking into ordinances and ways to cut that cost, the county changed the contract. At that time it was costing us about $60,000 for the same amount of animals to be sheltered. So the money has doubled, which is why we started looking into our own shelter."

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She said the reclaim for county animals is about 1 percent and that rest are rescued and adopted. She added that the county was also trying to cut authorization costs. In an effort to cut costs, the county sent a request for proposals for a different contractor in January but received no bids.

"We just didn't jump into this. We have been looking into this for a couple of years, knowing we had a problem and were trying to fix it," said Ronny Rardin, county commissioner.

Flores and Herrell said they have been working on the animal shelter project for about two years.

"I didn't charge a fee to do a feasibility study. We didn't do a feasibility study because there is a fee involved," Herrell said about the county not asking for the study. "It's just a good common-sense judgement."

Daniel Bryant, county attorney, said the commission has the option to get out of the agreement if they choose at any time.

"If at any point in this transaction we decide this isn't the way to go, then the only money we are out is the rent," Bryant said. "When you look at this operation, the $25,000 in rent (per year), the rent is well below the market value. It's barely over $2,000 in rent to run an animal shelter -- well below market value. You have complete power and authority in that part if you decide fiscally that this isn't going to work."

Flores said she was hesitant to enter a contract with a municipality.

"What happens when commissions change in both places," she said. "What if they decide they don't want us anymore and we lose the opportunity to purchase this really exceptional facility for this amount of money? That is a concern I have. If we go with someone else, and six months later they say, 'We don't want you anymore,' well, now we have nothing and we are back to square one."

Rardin he supported the decision whole-heartedly.

"I feel this is absolutely, without a doubt, one of the best purchases we will do if we approve this," he said. "We are going to be in the business of animal safety and control, regardless of whether we like it or not, we are in that business and we need to do the best we know how to do it."

The commission unanimously decided to enter the agreement and will make a business plan for the shelter Friday.